


fall into open arms, tear through open veins

by TrainRush



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [19]
Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Overworking, Self-Harm, Sleep Deprivation, lot of hurt/comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:55:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29573523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrainRush/pseuds/TrainRush
Summary: DAY 19: sleep deprivationOne odd day, the Conductor arrived at Dead Bird Studios with a bandaged hand.—(or, alternatively, the Conductor attempts to cover up one bad situation with another.)
Relationships: The Conductor & DJ Grooves (A Hat in Time), can be interpreted as either ship or platonic
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2105115
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	fall into open arms, tear through open veins

One odd day, the Conductor arrived at Dead Bird Studios with a bandaged hand.

When DJ Grooves had confronted the Conductor about the bandages, concerned that something had happened, he had laughed at him. The Conductor quickly followed up by explaining that late in the previous night, in the basement, a couple props had fallen and sliced his hand open. He assured him that everything would be fine in a few days when the wound healed. DJ Grooves was skeptical about the story—  _ how would props have fallen in the exact spot to slice open his hand? _ —but decided to believe him anyway. The Conductor wouldn’t have bandaged his hand— his good one, at that —if nothing was wrong. He was probably just too embarrassed to admit what had really happened, DJ Grooves decided.

And so he carried on with his day, parting ways with the Conductor from the lobby and going about to complete his daily rounds. Still, something about the short interaction stuck with him, and he spent a good portion of his day wondering what could have been under those bandages. Was it really a laceration, as the Conductor said? What else could it have been? Could he have spilled paint on his hand and couldn’t get it off? Ink? Maybe.

As much as it intrigued him, DJ Grooves didn’t particularly care. Of course, if it really were an injury of some kind, he wished the Conductor an easy recovery, but it hardly concerned him outside of simply that. 

At least, it wouldn’t for a few more hours.

—

The studio day had ended, and almost every bird left the studio with the small exception of the two directors, who stayed behind to work on paperwork. Without the typical noise of the music and the yelling of the birds, the studio was surprisingly quiet, especially on the lower levels. It was almost  _ too  _ quiet, with every small noise echoing infinitely. The afternoon dragged on, and eventually, nighttime dawned upon the studio.

DJ Grooves felt quite proud of himself, having finished his work for the day much earlier than he had expected. As he began to sort his finished papers and clipboards into their proper spots, he wondered to himself if the Conductor was still in the studio. The latter had a very specific afternoon routine: he would finish filming for the day, conduct his train to bring every owl back to their towns, and then circle back around to the studio to complete his work before sleeping. Whether he slept in the basement or on his train depended on the day. 

Checking his watch and noting the time, DJ Grooves figured the Conductor would likely still be working. He wondered whether it would be worth it to check up on the other. Perhaps he could check in about his injured hand, even. DJ Grooves nodded to himself definitively. Checking in would be worth it. Especially since the hand the Conductor had injured was his dominant one.

Once the rest of DJ Grooves’s files had been sorted away at last, he straightened his coat and walked out of his office. 

As he walked, an odd feeling began to rise in his heart. It felt a little bit like nervousness, despite Grooves being fairly confident in his actions.  _ What was underneath the Conductor’s bandages?  _ Something about that question felt wrong to him. He didn’t think it was a very  _ personal  _ question; it wasn’t like the Conductor was trying to hide anything. Yet at the same time…

DJ Grooves shook the feeling away, amounting it to nerves. But why was he nervous? Was it because the basement was so lonely? Or was it because he was afraid of seeing the Conductor?

He couldn’t answer that question, yet he carried on anyway.

Surely, everything was okay.

Surely.

—

When DJ Grooves finally reached the door to the Conductor’s office, he hadn’t expected to see it cracked open. It wasn’t like the owl at all to leave his spaces open for anyone to enter. It wasn’t  _ safe,  _ even with him in there. Something was wrong, but DJ Grooves didn’t know what. He wasn’t drinking, was he? Even then, how would he have gotten so drunk that he would have forgotten to lock the door— at least, in such a short amount of time?

Was he tired?

It suddenly hit DJ Grooves what had stuck with him about that interaction with the Conductor that he’d had in the morning. The man was  _ tired.  _ Abnormally tired. Had he slept at  _ all  _ last night? Through remembering his rival’s strange sleepiness, he could hardly believe himself for only thinking about the bandages on his hand. 

_ Were they related? _

Unsure of what that would entail, DJ Grooves shook his head. Cautiously, he approached the door, gently opening it to peek through a crack, trying to see if the Conductor were there. 

And there he was, sitting at his desk. But something was wrong about the scene that made Grooves’s skin crawl.

On top of the Conductor’s uncharacteristic sleepiness causing him to nearly doze off every two seconds, there was a knife on his desk, something he had never recalled being there before. But  _ why? _

The Conductor’s pen scratched the surface of the paper he was filling out, with DJ Grooves watching, confused. Every once in a while, the Conductor’s head would tip down, as though he were falling asleep, before spiking back up. His movements were slow and hardly steady, unfocused and tremulous. It almost hurt DJ Grooves to watch. When was the last time he had gotten sleep? The Conductor’s head fell for a moment, staying there and hardly spiking up. For a moment, DJ Grooves wondered whether he’d fallen asleep, when—

The Conductor sprung up very suddenly, an unreadable expression crossing his face. Almost as soon as it did, he began to unravel the bandages wrapped around his hand. Meanwhile, DJ Grooves was frozen in place. He couldn’t walk in now. A part of him felt the need to turn away and run, but he couldn’t. His feet were rooted to the ground where he was.

And then the bandages finished unraveling. DJ Grooves almost felt sick at the sight. About a dozen or more slices lined and crossed on the back of his hand, each looking more recent than the other. The Conductor froze for a second, studying his hand, before turning back to the knife on his desk. The pieces in DJ Grooves’s mind clicked together and his heart dropped. When the Conductor picked up the knife, he looked away, shutting his eyes. No. He couldn’t watch that.

Only when he heard a small hiss from the Conductor did he look up again. Just as he had expected, there was now blood on the knife and a fresh cut on the back of his hand. DJ Grooves felt his heart pound in his chest. He didn’t know what to think. A part of him was scared; he’d just looked in on something he absolutely shouldn’t have seen. Another part of him wanted to walk into the room and comfort the Conductor: help him patch up his hand, get to bed, and get a good night’s rest for the first time in who knows when.

The Conductor began to wrap his hand back up, the bandages absorbing the blood on his hand.

DJ Grooves couldn’t remain still anymore.

He opened the door fully and the Conductor flinched, freezing with tying up his hand and staring at the bird that had just walked through his door. A moment after Grooves walked through the door, the Conductor opened his mouth, looking as though he were about to say something. However, he quickly shut it, looking away in some combination of both shame and exhaustion.

Closing the door behind him, DJ Grooves slowly approached the Conductor, being careful as to not make the other nervous. It hurt him to see his friend like this. He wanted to help, no matter what it would take.

DJ Grooves gently pulled up a chair, sitting in front of the other. He thought for a moment, unsure of what to do. What  _ could  _ he do? He could try and offer some kind of assurance, but what would he even  _ say?  _ Would he even say the right things?

The Conductor held his bandaged hand in his other. DJ Grooves was hit with an idea and slowly extended a hand.

For a few moments of anxious silence, the Conductor said and did nothing, simply staring at Grooves’s hand. First, defensiveness washed up on his face. Then consideration. Then, at last, exhaustion and a bit of defeat as he finally extended his bandaged hand out, gently fitting in Grooves’s hold.

As carefully as he could, DJ Grooves examined the bandages. Quietly, he muttered out to the Conductor:

“How old are these bandages?”

The Conductor seemed mildly surprised at this question, looking over his bandages as though searching for an answer.

“A day and a half, I think.” Sleepiness manifested itself in his voice. His words strung together, hanging on to each other as if for dear life. 

DJ Grooves thought for a moment. “Would a replacement be more comfortable?”

The Conductor shrugged.

“Well…” he thought for a moment, “why don’t we? I think that we should get some antibiotics on there, too, while we’re at it.” He looked up at the Conductor. “The last thing we’d want is for those wounds to get infected.”

Silence, with the exception of the ticking of a clock in the corner of the room, stretched on for a moment. It wasn’t until the Conductor finally nodded that Grooves smiled very slightly and quiet noise picked up again in the room.

“Good. We can get on that, then.” He began lowering the Conductor’s hand, and then he paused. “Do you have a first aid kit in here? Or some kind of medicine?”

The Conductor seemed to think. “Probably,” he murmured, breaking away from Grooves’s grasp for a moment to search his drawers. Eventually, he turned back around with not only a roll of bandages, but also a small tube of antibiotic cream. 

DJ Grooves took the two and placed them in his lap, taking hold of the Conductor’s hand again. With delicate hands, he unwrapped the bandages, holding the bundle of gauze in his hand as the slices were given light once again. Up close, DJ Grooves could see that every single one of them was recent. They didn’t cross over any old scars at all. This must have been something the Conductor had picked up very recently.

Using the old bandages to dab away any excess blood, he gently applied a small bit of antibiotic to the cuts before wrapping his hand in the new bandages. Tying them off in a neat and breathable way, the Conductor took his hand back, studying them.

“Is it okay?” he asked, anxiously watching as he set the old bandages aside.

Immediately, the Conductor’s head shot up. “Yeah, it is,” he muttered. “Thank you…” he trailed off, looking back away and refusing to glance back up.

“I just want to make sure everything heals alright, darling,” he said. Then, another thought hitting him, he paused. “...When was the last time you’ve gotten sleep?”

The Conductor frowned. “Is it that obvious?”

“You look exhausted, darling.”

He sighed. “I’ve been using this,” he gestured to his hand, “to keep myself awake so I could finish all my work.” Upon noticing Grooves’s shock, he attempted to elaborate. “Coffee doesn’t work; it only makes me sleepier. Energy drinks or whatever don’t work either. Nothing else has worked but this.” The Conductor looked back down at the papers on his desk. “I need to finish everything. How else am I supposed to do that?” He paused. “I’ve been awake for maybe two days now.”

DJ Grooves’s eyes widened in shock once again. “Two days?! Darling, we need to get you to bed—“

“No, not now. Let me finish—“

“Yes, now!” DJ Grooves was already rising from his chair, holding out a hand to pull up the Conductor with him. “You can work later. For now, you need to sleep.”

The Conductor glanced at the papers on his desk and then up at Grooves. It didn’t take long for him to eventually take the latter’s hand and rise up out of his chair. DJ Grooves smiled down at him.

“Let’s go.”

The two made their way from the Conductor’s office and to his bedroom in complete silence. On the walk there, DJ Grooves could feel as the Conductor gently leaned against him for support. Noticing this, DJ Grooves gently wrapped an arm around the Conductor’s shoulders. He leaned a little more, relaxing.

Eventually, the two reached the Conductor’s room and Grooves let go. The Conductor walked to his door, putting a hand on his doorknob before stopping a moment.

“Grooves?”

“Yes?”

The Conductor turned around, smiling slightly. “Thank you.”

DJ Grooves felt his heart melt. “Any time, darling.”

And the Conductor was gone.


End file.
